Wind turbines and nuclear plants need a lot of steel and concrete. This large “ carbon debt”, and the related debt of energy, must be paid off if they are to cut emissions over their lifetime.įactories churning out solar panels use large amounts of electricity, often sourced from coal-fired power stations in China. Luderer tells Carbon Brief: “The most important finding was that the expansion of wind and solar power…comes with life-cycle emissions that are much smaller than the remaining emissions from existing fossil power plants, before they can finally be decommissioned.” Carbon debtĬritics sometimes argue that nuclear, wind or solar power have a hidden carbon footprint, due to their manufacture and construction. “There was a concern that it is a lot harder than suggested by energy scenario models to achieve climate targets, because of the energy required to produce wind turbines and solar panels and associated emissions,” explains project leader Dr Gunnar Luderer, who is an energy system analyst at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research (PIK). This remains true after accounting for emissions during manufacture, construction and fuel supply. It shows that the carbon footprint of solar, wind and nuclear power are many times lower than coal or gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS). The research, published in Nature Energy, measures the full lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of a range of sources of electricity out to 2050. Building solar, wind or nuclear plants creates an insignificant carbon footprint compared with savings from avoiding fossil fuels, a new study suggests.
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